In a printing system where multiple marking engines are used to print a job, consistency in image quality produced by the individual marking engines that are used to produce a given document is a central issue. It is important that the level of gloss be essentially the same, even though the pages (often it will be multiple copies of the same page) are printed on different marking engines. And, in systems with only one marking engine, it is important that gloss be uniform over a page.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,221, herein incorporated by reference, discloses measuring in situ color, gloss and registration, but at low resolution and at only one place in the process direction.
The inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to provide an improved way to assess the current gloss capability of each of the color engines. The inventors also recognized that it would be desirable to provide an improved way to assess the current gloss capability of each of the monochrome engines.